Archive for September, 2011

Hey, I would like to interview you for Sov Wars, my Faction War blog, interested?

Look. First off, I know about every setup there is, I don’t care for cookie cutter setups. Saying that I’m clueless is bs, if I know about every setup, how can I be clueless?

Clueless?

“Despite the obvious trolls, we have very helpful pilots who will spend an extraordinary amount of time and patience with a new pilot or someone who is just clueless. Evidence here, an hour and a half long conversation with Amarrian pilot, Undertovv.”

“I’m not clueless, its how I want to fly my ship.”

So here’s your chance to tell your side of the story.

“Why? The interview is just for trolling.”

No it’s not, my blog is for everyone in FW to tell their story. I can ask you questions and you can respond, or not.

“Ok ask me.”

How long have you been in Faction War? Which factions have you flown for?

“Maybe a year. Caldari and Amarr.”

How does Caldari differ from Amarr in regards to pvp styles?

“They don’t really differ too much, they basically fly the same ships, drakes and canes mainly. I take this back. Actually they both either fly armor and shield tanked bc’s/ bs’s or nano bc’s and down depending on the situation.”

So you went from Amarr to Caldari then back to Amarr? Did you do anything in between? Like trying other parts of the game, or have you stayed consistently in the militia?

“I did other things like planetary interaction and I enjoyed learning this and kept up with my command centers but after a while it got old and I got tired of jumping within an 8 system span to collect all the materials that my extractors got, so I quit. I did it for about a year through the cal militia. Just got tired of moving the extractors around.”

What other parts of the game have you tried besides FW?

“R & D agents and loved it. It was fun getting your standing up to be able to use the agents. After that you really don’t have to do anything else. Thats pretty much it of all the things I’ve done besides faction war.’

Is that where you learned pvp? From FW? Who would you say has been the biggest influence on your pvp style?

“I didn’t learn pvp from faction warfare. I learned many years ago when I lived in low sec where pirates lived. I adapted to living around them and used my instincts against them. The biggest influence on my pvp style is the fact that pvp is never fair when it comes to numbers.”

What is your favorite ships to fly, and why?

“I don’t really have a favorite ship to fly, I sometimes fly ships if I get tired of flying what I’ve been flying, but it also depends on the situations that we are going to be in.”

Is there anything you’re looking forward to flying in the future?

“Newly added ships to the game I guess. I’d have to say there needs to be more ships, introduce corvettes or something, or how about a covert ops destroyer lol, I’m just making up things. I heard something about t3 frigates but I guess that’s a dream.”

What are some of your most memorable experiences in EVE? And in particular, FW?

“When I was in the Cal militia and we flew a kiting fleet against the Gal militia and killed almost all of them and didn’t lose anything. I think Dark Pangolin was the fc.”

Nice, do you have the battlereport for that?

“No.”

So what happened with you and Mystical Might?

“We agreed to a 1v1 but I told him it was till structure and he didn’t listen. He says that I never said anything, but I said it loud and clear.”

Was there a particular reason you did a 1 v 1 with him?

“He kept asking.”

Did he pod you?

“No.”

What do you think of the recording of the conversation that some of the Amarr guys had with you?

“They did it just to troll, but I told them how I felt on anything they quoted me on.”

Have you modified your fits since?

“No. Why do I get the feeling that this is a trolling too?”

It’s not, I’m just asking questions that people are likely wanting to know, and to give you a chance to say whatever you want.

“Whatever I say doesn’t matter, it’s basically what they want me to do despite the fact that I pay for this account.”

Have you flown with any militia fleets since the recording?

“Yep.”

How did that work out?

“Alright.”

So you don’t think the public recording has had any affect on your participation with the militia?

“I guess when it first was introduced, but it’s all trolling and I don’t care, I just play, if they don’t like me, fuck ’em.”

Do you have a Hitler/WW2/Nazi fascination? It came up quite a bit in that convo.

“No, I told them they were acting like hitler.”

Who do you most admire in Amarr Militia, and which of our enemies do you most admire?

“Predator Elite because I think he’s a good fc. No one from the minnies.”

Would you change your fit to fly in a Pred fleet if he asked it of you?

“I guess, it depends on the degree. Everyone has their flying style and other people’s fits would make me feel uncomfortable. Of course I’ve gathered that people feel uncomfortable with my fits but it’s about your flying style.”

#1 Small gang pew pew. I could probably stop at this point for many people. The truth is, faction war is rampant with small gang warfare. Sure, you can get a good dose of big blobs as well, but if you’re a solo pvper or someone who likes to keep to tiny gangs, there will be plenty of action for you.

#2 Really Great People to Fly With. Not the ‘oh, he’s kinda nice’ people. The kind of people that you end up keeping in contact with…forever.

#3 Iskies! I’m not much of a carebear but I’ve been told that faction war missions are an excellent way to make isk. Some of my friends make as much as a billion in a few hours of missioning in their stealth bombers.…

#4 Amarr tears and corpses. Sure, they occasionally have issues. They can be somewhat blobby at times, and they occasionally yell to neutrals to come help them. Sometimes that just makes it more fun to kill them. There’s also a lot of great guys (and girls) in the Amarr militia, and there are many always willing to give a 1 vs 1.

#5 Low-Sec. Honestly, low-sec is where it’s at these days. Because who in their right mind would want to live in the boring void that is null sec? Honestly. Not to mention, you can go pirate and have even more people to shoot at!

#6 Drama. Eve wouldn’t be Eve without it. People claim to not have it and to not want it but it’s always there in some amount and people are always attracted to it like flies. There’s drama when the Amarr batphone. There’s drama when the Minmatar drop a carrier. There’s tears in local and accusations of blobbing when you drop 4 ppl to kill one battlecruiser. Tears and smack and yelling…but always a gf in local in the end.

#7 Blog Material! Honestly, faction war has been a really fun topic for me to write about over the past few weeks. Sure, I don’t consider this a faction war blog and I write about a lot of other stuff…but there’s so much interesting ‘stuff’ that happens in faction war that makes for great writing material.

#8 Fly Whatever You Want! Tech 1 cruisers are completely legitimate and useful in faction war, or you can bring your rapier. People don’t really care as much as they seem to in nullsec. A good fight is a good fight whether you are all in punishers or in tech 2 fit battleships with logistic support. Most fcs will guide people to what’s appropriate for that fleet but it’s usually wide open as far as choices are concerned. No required fits, no required ships you need on hand all the time. It’s your game and you make the rules.

#9 Bring Yourself, or Bring a Corp. In faction war, you can join the general militia corporation with a mere .5 faction standings. Or, you can enter your entire corporation into faction war. So whether you’re solo just wanting to scout things out a bit, or you want to bring all your friends, it’s a pretty easy transition to make.

1. Despite the obvious trolls, we have very helpful pilots who will spend an extraordinary amount of time and patience with a new pilot or someone who is just clueless. Evidence here, an hour and a half long conversation with Amarrian pilot, Undertovv.

Help is abundant, all you have to do is ask (the right people).

2. Girl friendly. Okay, so something like 96% of EvE is male, but there are still tons of girls out in EvE who might be carebearing it up though they secretly desire to go shoot someone in the face. For the most part, the Amarr Militia is accustomed to having an OMG-A-REAL-GIRL around on comms. So if you’re female, come give it a try!

3. No tedious CTAs and Null Sec obligations. Militia is usually pure pvp without the scheduled fights of null sec. You can log on, undock, and find a fight. No setting your alarm clock for the middle of the night. No going 25+ jumps for a fight, etc. Most of our engagements take place within five systems or so.

4. Wizard hats. Amarr Militia has many great pvp-role play corps, so it’s like two for the price of one. You can roleplay about shooting Minmatar in the face while shooting Minmatar in the face. Think rpers are lol-lame? Minmatar has a couple of rp corps, so join Amarr and shoot them in the face!

5. Everyone is important. A noob to EvE that can tackle is just as important as someone in their fancy tech 3s.

6. Null sec comes to us. Often times the big alliances of null sec will drop by for a visit, as seen here.

By the by, I’m placing a pineapple on the Amamake star gates for PL.

(Funfact: A well-bred socialite of the 1800s living in the deep South would leave a pineapple at the foot of a guest’s bed to let him / her know it was time to leave.)

7. Amarr ships are sexy. Granted you don’t have to be in Amarr Militia to fly Amarr ships, but you can get those pretty sexy ships for barely nothing if you do Faction War missions.

8. It’s not routine. You never know what you’re going to log into. Fleets range from frigate swarms to OMG HOT DROP ‘OCLOCK. Though we typically fight against the Minmatar, it is not uncommon to fleet with the Minmatar to fight pirates. And once or twice we’ve fleeted with the Minmatar and the pirates to fight some random null sec alliance who was rolling through our war zone. You just never really know whats going to happen!

After being involved with FW for 6-10 months with core impulse I knew it was where I wanted to pvp, while 0.0 remained the way it is. Core impulse decided to leave but myself and a few others including Predator Elite wanted to stay, so making a new corp seemed the best solution. Initially created for solo and small gang pilots, with as few limitations as possible, we promised nothing and would not take people we didn’t know and enjoy to fly with, our vouch system kept the bar high for members recruiting friends.

What inspired the name of your corporation?

I requested some good potential names from my friends, a very old friend master bates, suggested Imperial Fedaykin as he had also read the Dune series of books (from where I took my name), since the Fedaykin were Muad ‘dibs elite commando guard in the books, it seemed very fitting and better than anything else anyone came up with, it sounded good with imperial (for the Amarr connection) so it stuck 🙂

Have your plans for TMFED changed any since it’s creation?

They have not, no. We have had to get into some aspects of EvE we wanted to avoid, such as POS, but sometimes that’s unavoidable.

TMFED is invite only. How do you find your pilots? What kind of criteria do they have to meet to get an invitation?

Usually a potential new member will be approached, sometimes persistent individuals put in applications anyway and sometimes we give them a shot, sometimes not. The fact we are invite only makes it extremely fast to say a firm no, when you need to.

What kind of corp rules and policies does TMFED have?

Well since TMFED was created, the policy’s have relaxed slightly, but the basics still apply. We have always tried not to boss anyone about, no CTA requests or roles pushed on anyone. This is to give the otherwise lonely solo player a place in a corp that’s unlike every other and yet with other players like them. Where possible our members interest come before the corp or the directors.

Why does TMFED base out of Auga 3rd?

At the beginning of the year Amarr militia was not doing very well and often being camped in Houla, the Amarr hub system. To inflict pain directly back, I and a small group decided to make our kills in Auga, the then very active minmatar hub system.

This continued as TMFED grew and the Amarr militia found its pvp feet again, we just never left 😉

What types of corp-only fleets does TMFED favor the most?

We fly what we have available to combat what we think we have to deal with at the time, if there is no specific gang to fight we will go with faster moving ships so we are able to react quickly to friendly FW intel. Cynabals and tengus mostly 🙂

Have you ever had to boot a member? If so, why?

Yes, mostly due to not fitting in by not understanding our goal and taking advantage of the zero tax or open nature of the corp, also for simply being offensive to friendly militia or corp members.

Have you been a CEO or held any leadership roles in other corporations before TMFED?

Yes my list is long, I’ve only not been a director or CEO of a few corps. I think that has mostly been due to the time i have available to play. I’ve tried to use the experience well I’ve certainly made some mistakes and likely to make a few more, but hey, that’s the challenge. This corp is the best so far, because of its lack of definitive rules the members do so much more for themselves even when it does come to doing a corp event (which is rare).

What do you find is the hardest part of being a CEO in general and of TMFED specifically?

It’s not hard, as mentioned above this corp really does its own thing. Perhaps the only tough job I have is unravelling disputes and making a decision, as admin work is fast and easy.

What are you most proud of your corp for?

Existing for a year!!! (we turn a year old in about 10 days)

I’ve enjoyed every moment, it makes me proud we can do what we do and enjoy it still, that’s it.

What’s the secret to TMFED being so successful?

Well there’s really very little TMFED has to do to keep going, our structure has only two directors and one of those is silent.

We do things when we need to and that’s about it. Simplicity is its greatest strength.

Of course being packed full of excellent pvpers and very, very funny people just makes everyday a delight.

You don’t even have to undock to enjoy yourself, which is rare in pvp focused corps.

Do you think TMFED will always be in Militia?

Yes, absolutely.

Why did you choose Amarr Militia over the others for TMFED?

I was already here with core impulse and liked how the Amarr militia conducted ourselves compared to the militias, when I came to make my own corp it was the obvious choice.

Does TMFED participate in plexing and system capturing? Do you think it’s even worthwhile?

We only assist for pvp, since some minnie plexers are so hard set on the plexing and not the pvp it sometimes isn’t worth even trying to catch them. I suppose it also depends on the corp general mood at any given time 🙂

What other Faction War corps do you admire and why?

Zero heavy industries, Black souls, KOTMC our new friends from Caldari militia Wolfsbrigade, any of the top pvp corps really, just because I know how tough it can be in low sec sometimes.

Has PL’s arrival in Amamake affected TMFED?

Yeah for sure, they really would drop supers on anything, also they do have fast roaming gank gangs with RR so it’s just forced most militia fights esp the big ones, right down to small plexing style fleets and one vs ones, etc. While I prefer smaller fights the fact we are all a bit nervous of PL saying hello half way through any fight, well it just puts everyone down and that’s a fact.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting up a Faction War corporation?

Start with at least a few guys already into the cause and lay out some ground rules between them. Make sure your corp is fun, dont shout, dont boss people about, this is a game remember, too many forget that and act like it’s a job, do this and you will kill your corp off soon.

What do you think makes Faction War awesome?

Its official, straight forward pvp. War decs and alliance clashes always leads to hours and pages of arguments over this and that, most of us are here just to fight a player or bunch of players and say GF afterwards and do it again tomorrow, way more sportsman like.

What do you wish CCP would change about Faction War?

Make plexing something that attracts pvers, pvpers alike and dare I say it…. make it profitable?

Oh and also adding some way to mission as a corp with corp LP or some sort of acknowledgement at a corp level, not ALWAYS a personnel level.

The amount of mission spamming bombers makes me angry!

Thank you for the interview, any parting thoughts?

You are welcome, thank you for taking an interest in what we have done so far 🙂

What attracted you to the game?
I’ll just make this clear since everyone keeps asking about this toons name, I once made a trial account for EVE for shits and giggles, and was rather unimaginative with my name, I made the name “Super Chair” because well…chair was taken. I didn’t know I would actually be playing the game but here I am with this…name. I ended up liking EVE more than I thought I would.

What other aspects of the game have you tried other than militia?
Wormholes, some 0.0 but not much to really count.

What are some of your most memorable experiences in FW?
Drunk fleet with smeggers…The gallente jumped into us and smeggers was too smashed to really call primaries, he just said fuck it shoot what you want and somehow we held the field.

Oh yeah and forming fleets in Nourv back when Caldari based there, with a two-hour form up time playing fitting nazi.

Do you participate in plexing and system capturing? Do you think it is a worthwhile endeavor?

I participate in plexing and bunker busts, sometimes its just for giggles or its an actual push to take systems. There’s really no reward for capturing a system other than just to mess with guys from the other side. But for the plexes themselves there’s a lot of solo/small gang fights and that’s the good part.

What do you think of Captain’s Quarters?
I think it’s not that great of a feature, I’m sure once dust and such is all implemented it might be cool, but there’s so much you could do with the resources you would have to put behind it to make the flying in space portion of EVE even better. I don’t care for Incarna, I have station environment disabled.

What makes FW awesome?
The players. I’ve been on both sides and there are some really awesome people on both sides that really make staying in FW worthwhile.

What do you wish CCP would change about FW?
The big thing is making occupancy meaningful, and a lot of the bug fixes regarding standings, bubbles, etc. Alliances in FW would be cool too, obviously just make it so they can’t hold sov.

What do you think about the use of alt spies, neutral alts for bonuses, and outside cap support?
It happens, there’s really not a huge reason to spy in FW, neutral alts, everyone has them. The whole batphoning thing has gotten out of hand though.

Who do you admire in Caldari FW?
I admire Gunnyt31 and Gavingoodrich, really agressive FCs that will leeroy just to have some fun.

Which of your opponents do you most admire?
Chatgris, another aggressive FC and I would say is the Gallente’s best FC.

What do you think of mixed fleets(Caldari/Gallente, etc) to fight pirates/neutrals?
I’m all for blueing up if it gets everyone a fight. Being too stuck up to work with the other side helps no one. If there’s a big neutral/pie fleet out that you can’t take out with just your own guys you have two options: blueball your own guys and go home, or work with the other militia and have some fun.

Have you flown with Amarrian fleets? If so, what do you think about the differences in strategies, etc?
Haven’t flown too much with the Amarr fleets. I know they like to roll a lot heavier most of the time.

What do you think your strengths and weaknesses are as a pilot?
I fly a lot of ECM and sniper boats so I’m overly cautious in a fight. Sometimes I lose out on kills because of it. Sometimes it really helps though. I got cocky against too many targets and decided to leeroy in once their tank was gone but ended up turning out for the worst for me.

What types of gangs do you most like to fly in?
Mostly nanoshield gangs or small roaming gangs.

What advice would you give to someone joining Caldari militia?
Grind ISK and have literally dozens of ships ready to go. Not having ships ready is going to hurt you and your fleet. Remember, when you have to go to a market hub to buy a ship/modules you’re not only using your time, but that of 30 other people waiting on you. You’ll end up being kicked from fleet or you will make 30 other people wait. Have your ships sorted.

Why did you choose Caldari over the other militias?
I initially went Caldari because a buddy from my wormhole days was here. I was Caldari for about two years then I switched to Gallente for a few months. Really cool people on both sides but in the end I went back to Caldari because of some of the friends here and the easy mode missions.

How long have you been an FC?
About two years, I don’t FC too often nowadays though.

What do you consider the most difficult part of FCing?
Trying to understand non-english European scouts with accents. Straight up the hardest thing to do when you’re used to american/english scouts. Its maddening sometimes.

What is the worst thing you’ve done as an FC?
Warped sniper fleet to 0 😀

What types of gangs do you most enjoy FCing?
Drake fleets were my favorite for a long time, other than that I like frig/dessie brawls and BS slugfests.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who is an up-and-coming FC?
Don’t take it personally and rage (I’ve raged too much) if your fleet dies. Really try to keep a positive attitude and don’t single people out. No one likes it when an FC calls names over comms, do it in private if people need sorting out. Oh and comms discipline (obviously you would bitch people out publicly if they interrupt comms/fleet operations enough). Everyone is there to have fun, try to keep it fun.

20.00 hours :
I start forming up a fleet that I had been planning and looking forward to for a couple of days already.
The fleet is formed with the objective of sieging the Auga POS – the Minmatar Crown Jewel – owned by Royal Order of Security Specialists.

Due to the high fleet complexity form up takes quite a bit of time.

21.30 hours:
The fleet is moving out towards the tower. With fleet numbers of about 50 including 10 logistics ships and no war targets around the composition that we’re rolling in is just right.

21.40 hours:
We start the relentless siege work on the pos taking out key modules, one after another time seeping away and the watch quickly showing 22.30.

22.45 hours :
With the realization that this truly is a “Deathstar POS”, I have my guardians swap out their ships and bring in one triage archon for logistics, three heavy interdictors and some dreadnaughts.

Local is nothing but climbing and my scouts inform me that war targets are getting very busy all around us. Movement reports include Minmatar militia, QCATS, SLAPD, SOTF and BANE.

23.02 hours:
Local is spiking towards 158.

With all support carriers that I have ready aligned towards the POS, hostiles warp in on us and land at their optimals. Their fleet is a fully fledged 80+ battleship fleet split up into close range armor brawlers and long-range artillery.

The hostile fleet has barely landed when my other carriers arrive on field – I give the command for all of them to triage simultaneously knowing that the hostile fleet would have both very high DPS as well as large amounts of neuting in order to counter our capital logistics. The reps are holding strong and except for an unlucky Abaddon that gets alpha’ed, we have almost no losses. We neutralize the enemy logistics with both neutralizers and ECM and kill hostile battleship after battleship goes down.

The hostile fleet first tries to primary our subcapitals but quickly realising that they can’t break the carrier reps they go for our capitals – a carrier and dreadnaught both making it out of triage/siege in structure before they are getting reps from the other friendlies on field. When the minmatar realize they can’t break us or nullify our logistics they cut their losses and withdraw from the field with roughly 25% of their fleet destroyed.

My response to “What do wish CCP would change about FW to make it better?”:

Part of what I love about being in the militia is that we are a niche community that embodies the creative spirit of EvE gameplay, most of us veterans have found ways to entertain ourselves just fine for years without needing content spoonfed to us to stave off boredom. That being said, there are two simple changes that I see as being easily implemented with minimal CCP resources (ideas are useless if they are unrealistic) that have the potential to completely revitalize Faction Warfare and make it an exciting, attractive feature for new and old pilots alike, and can make the conflicts newsworthy and relevant to those passing through our zones once again.

1.) Get rid of Supercapitals in lowsec. Part of lowsec’s appeal is the limit on more heavy handed combat and control measures, such as interdiction bubbles, doomsdays, and bombs. I think banning the upper crust of capital ships fits in with this spirit quite nicely. Titans primarily serve as fleet bridges, and there just isn’t enough large-scale fleet movement in lowsec conflicts such as FW to justify the need to allow them. And Supercarriers need massive rebalancing anyways. Lets kill batphones for either militia party, and bring the conflicts back to the scale we know and love. Dreads and carriers should be fine to stay, since wherever there is a POS there is a need for those two ships to defend and attack, accordingly.

2.) Bring consequence to plexing. When I started as a young pilot, FW was only a year or two old and plexing was still a great way to lure fights of a certain size. That allure diminishes as you can fly more advanced ships and are no longer trying to keep the fight to tech 1 cruisers and below, for example. The real underlying problem is the lack of meaning to holding territory. I would love to see the developers simply use the code they already wrote for Incursions to enhance FW plexing and implement system wide effects to those who win contested areas. It’s a lazy route, but I’d rather see a lazy solution than none at all because of other features needing coding priority. Ideas for system-wide consequences are endless : LP boosts / nerfs for FW missions, Increased repair bill costs, POS hit point buffs/nerfs (making it tougher to obtain a foothold in enemy territory), Increased faction NPC activity, Station guns that target based on Faction and sovereignty, not just GCC status (to minimize station games and force fighting back into the plexes).

Thanks for your time and all your hard work reporting on our goings on! I love the Faction Warfare community dearly, I was invited to join Hoplite Brigade when I was a wee rifter pilot and never had a reason to leave. The fantastic combat, interesting characters, the experience of founding [AUTOZ] and the challenge of developing us into one of the most successful Minmatar corporations has been a joy. I hope all our combined press coverage continues to show the rest of New Eden why we do what we do despite CCP’s “abandoning” of us!

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Sovereignty Wars

Character: Elisen

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